I work in a post office with approximately 40-45 mail carriers. There are 30 routes in the city plus some extras who are part-timers and replacements for when others are out sick or on vacation. I'd say at least half of them are terrible (whether intentionally or not) at their job and most are bad. I can only think of about 7 or 8 that I would trust to do a good job delivering mail to me based on how I see them behave when they are in the building, mail they leave behind, and hear them talking among other things.
A big part of the problem is the carriers union. It is pure evil. They are big, powerful, and do everything in their power to let the carriers do whatever the heck they want. They encourage carriers to call out sick as soon as they earn 8 hours sick leave, file as many grievances as possible to keep management bogged down from dealing with real problems, and get people like this one carrier at my job (She's been fired at least 3 times, the last for drunk driving.) their jobs back when they are fired.
Some of the carrier behavior I have seen in my 4 years working in a post office:
Intentionally leaving behind express mail then blaming it on the accountables clerk saying he "Hid it in the safe." Riiiight.
Taking someone else's mail off a piece of equipment and placing the mail on the floor so they could steal said equipment for their own use.
Carriers like overtime. Plus the strict OT rules require that management evenly distribute OT between the carriers on the overtime desired lists, which of course rarely happens. Then the ones who missed out on the OT get FREE MONEY.
Throwing first class mail in the garbage, saying either it was not theirs or was undeliverable. Neither of these is an excuse to throw away first class mail (nothing is) and often they were lying anyway.
Refusing to scan delivery confirmations and other scannable mail that needed to be entered manually in the scanner due to the bar code being slightly messed up.
Taking packages marked fragile off their desks (Where we put them instead of in the parcel buggy so they don't get damaged by other parcels) and hurling them into the parcel buggy in a fit of rage.
The one who was fired for drunken driving has also been accused by several of the customers on her route of threatening to "lose" important mail like checks if they ever complain about her again.
Spraying a dog who was barking from behind a door with pepper spray...through the mail slot. The guy who did this one got fired, but only because he was in his 90 day trial period. Had he made it through that he'd probably have to had raped, mutiliated, and wore the dog's head as a hat to work the next day to have a 50/50 chance of being fired. Even then he'd probably get rehired with back pay sooner or later.
A lot of these people are the most foul-mouthed people I have ever been around. Usually it wouldn't bother me but one time one of the other clerks was reprimanded for calling a carrier an asshole when many of them routinely scream F bombs and worse at the top of their lungs all morning long.
Intentionally trying to get injured, since an on the job injury is up to 45 days fully paid leave. One time a VERY heavy container of mail (hundreds of pounds) was falling off the lift we use to unload the truck and the dumbass carrier was standing there staring at it while I yelled at him to move. He was hoping it would hit his foot or toes so he could go out on leave and in the meantime I'm trying to hold it back but I know I can't do it for long (and I'm a pretty big guy) and it could really hurt him bad or worse if it landed on him. Finally he took a step back and I jumped out of the way and the thing missed him by inches.
Refusing to deliver a damaged piece of mail because they didn't want to upset the customer and risk losing their "Whiteys" (Christmas tips).
There is plenty more but I have seen so much it is hard to recall them all at once. Of course carriers aren't the only culprits.
I find food and drinks in containers of mail all the time when they get to us from the main plant. Once a bag of parcels was drenched entirely in beer. Someone poured it into the bag, making a huge puddle inside and soaking every parcel in it. Another time I reached into a bag and pulled out a handful of cake.
Our newest window clerk has left the window when she was the only one out there several times. Not only does this leave the customers hanging but since we have an open postal store with lots of expensive merchandise hanging on the walls, people could have just walked out with thousands of dollars of stuff.
I have seen many people clock into work then leave the building, hop into their car and head to parts unknown, to return an hour or more later. This one is usually clerks.
On a windy day a customer called and said a mail dropbox had been left open and the letters in it were blowing away in the wind. The supervisor decided to do nothing about it until another supervisor came in so she could pawn the job off on them. This left the mailbox open for about an hour.
One of the clerks I work with calls out sick 40 + times a year and is late nearly every day, often several hours late. She uses her kids as the excuse every single time. Many of these times she comes in the next day bragging about her date the previous night or with a new hairdo.
Just last week one of the truck drivers threw a bag of express mail I gave him on the ground in the parking lot and drove off without it. No idea why, though he says he didn't know he had dropped it.
Now after all that, the carrier who delivers to my house isn't bad. He's actually pretty good, though he does seem to miss a lot of time and his replacements are all over the map in quality.
A few final notes about the whiteys, because of them you WILL find your carriers suddenly become a lot more friendly and efficient from now through the end of the year. They live for those tips and will often get into fights with a replacement on their day off or something if he gets any. Many carriers will even pay the postage on any postage due mail (especially Christmas cards) so as to make the customer more likely to tip them and they remember those who don't.
Ok, the my work is evil rant is over.
ing mailperson just sucks. One day I will get the mail at like 11 in the morning and the next day 7 at night. Then I look over at my neighbors box and they will have my netflix in their box. At least once a week I will get some neighbor mail. I always walk it over and drop it in their box his house is only 30 feet away. But it makes me wonder if my neighbors ever do this for my family.
No, he's the Finance Manager of Pittsburgh he's pretty high on the food chain around here.